


off the cuff

by raffinit



Category: The Last of Us
Genre: F/M, Outdoor Sex, PWP, Plot What Plot/Porn Without Plot, Rooftop Sex, Tess is the more adventurous one in bed we all know this, handcuffed sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-29
Updated: 2016-08-02
Packaged: 2018-07-27 12:41:03
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,777
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7618474
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/raffinit/pseuds/raffinit
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Joel gets himself into a sticky situation. Tess to the rescue.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. rescue

**Author's Note:**

  * For [cannedpeaches](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cannedpeaches/gifts).



> For [cannedpeaches](http://archiveofourown.org/users/cannedpeaches/pseuds/cannedpeaches) as a thank you for that BEAUTIFUL Joel/Tess filth piece. 
> 
> Consider this one of my contributions to the "Joel/Tess + handcuffs" AND THEN SOME

It wouldn’t be the first time.

No; not the first time some cocky motherfucker decides to eliminate competition in their line of business, not the first time they would’ve been held at gun- or knife- or fucking  _ toothpick _ -point. (She’ll never let Joel live that down - how the fuck did he ever let someone hold him up with a fucking  _ toothpick _ ?) It sure as hell wouldn’t be the first time some wiseass decides to test the depth of their loyalty to each other; the most fucking annoying thing about it to Tess is that people still think that  _ she’s  _ the weak link a lot of the time. 

Those guys she takes special pleasure in cutting up. Breaks an extra bone or pinches a really bad nerve just so they can remember to their death that Tess Laroux does not fuck around.

They’re the best of the business, so no, Tess is not surprised that Joel has landed himself in this situation again. It could be her in his place, after all. 

What surprises her, though, is that these assholes were stupid enough to try to fuck around with her  _ in her own space.  _

_ Outside the Wall,  _ the note said.  _ By sunset or your pretty boy gets a brain full of lead.  _

Well.

Kidnapping her partner is one thing. But kidnapping her partner  _ and  _ disrespecting her space?

  
  


\-----

 

 

Finding them on the rooftop of the diner building is easy enough when they’re kicking shit around and talking out of their asses all the way down into the diner. Getting up there is easy enough too; this is  _ her  _ diner, after all. Her space. Her business route and certainly her motherfucking partner. Tess hauls herself up into a secret little loft with some fair semblance of grace; she’s even slightly perturbed that Joel isn’t here to witness it, but it’s just as well. 

She gets to the little hatch leading straight up into the rooftop and -

“That was really pathetic,” she pronounces, wiping the worst of the blood off her arm. “Horrible, really. Waste of a brain.”

There are three men dead at her feet; executed with some frightening amount of cruelty and efficiency by Tess. She doesn’t remember a lot of it, not after her first sight of Joel slumped in a chair with a gun shoved at his temple. She thinks she’d stabbed a guy through his foot from the bottom, and maybe made another one deepthroat it. In fact, she thinks Joel would be proud of her for only using her gun once - to double-tap but that’s two bullets to waste than potentially all of it.

There’s one still twitching postmortem and she gives his jerking wrist a rude little kick as she makes her way over to where Joel is hunched and curled into a metal chair.

“How’re you holdin’ up, old man?  

His eyes flash bright and near-wild at her under a filthy rag stuffed into his mouth and Tess gasps quietly. “Oh, Joel, honey…”

There’s an ugly bruise blooming over his cheekbone, a cut over the high ridge of his brow, and blood drying over what she thinks is a split lip. She reaches to touch it and he jerks briefly, growls behind the gag until she cups his cheek in her hand and unwinds the rag from his face. 

He heaves a grateful choke of breath, grimacing at the aftertaste of it in his mouth. Joel groans, shaking his head as she tilts his head back in the fading light, uses her gun’s Maglite to shine it over his face. “Thanks,” he mutters, straining against his bonds. “Took you long enough.”

Tess huffs. “You’re very fucking welcome, dick bag.” She bends to inspect his bindings, swearing under her breath when she sees the silvery clink of the handcuffs wound into the slats of the chair. She tugs at it experimentally, tries for a moment for forcibly yank Joel’s wrist out of the loop, but the man gives her a reproachful shout, jerking his arm away from her. She steps back, blows out another breath frustratedly. 

“Welp. Looks like we’re gonna have to take your arms off.”

“Not funny, Tess,” Joel grumbles at her, rocking this way and that, figuring a leverage at the weakest joints of the chair while Tess wanders off to loot the cooling bodies of the scumbags she’d killed. “Curfew’s bound to be over now, and ‘f we don’t get our asses offa this goddamn roof -”

“If you don’t shut up about it,  _ Texas _ , I’m pretty fuckin’ sure they’ll get a sniper on our asses before then,” she says, glancing at him irritably as she shoves a hand into a dead man’s pockets. Her smirk is dry and indulgent when he grunts at her. “Lotta talk for a man sittin’ on his ass while I do all the dirty work -”

Her fingers brush against metal, and Tess curls her fist around the pair of keys. Crouching there, she considers her options: Joel’s right about curfew, and there’s no way they’re gonna make it back through the Wall without needing to double down with encountering more guards than she’d like. They could take the scenic route and circle off to the North Tunnel apartment for the night, but fuck if Tess is gonna walk those miles after saving the day. 

She looks over to Joel; half-hidden in the rapidly fading light, orange and purple and shrouded against the brick walls of the buildings around them. She tucks the keys into her pocket and rises off her haunches thoughtfully, taking her time meandering back to Joel even as he’s pressing her for information. 

“Did you find the keys or what??” Joel looks pretty much done with the whole situation, and Tess can certainly sympathize, but….

“Tess, what’re you doin’?” He leans back warily as she trails a hand down his chest, spreads her fingers over the gape of his button down and rubbing over the chest hair peeking through. His eyes narrow at her suspiciously, and then widen when she throws a leg over his lap to straddle him. “Tessa -!”

She pouts. “Those look like they hurt.” She touches his injuries, leans forward to kiss the ridge of his brow, to press a lingering, much-too-friendly kiss on his cheekbone. Her breath is warm on his cheek, and she feels his jaw twitch, among other things. Beneath her she can feel his muscles coiling and tensing; his body shifting to react to her presence even if he’s staring at her like she’s sprouted seventeen heads and horns. 

Tess feels her lips curve into a slow, sensuous smirk. “Consider this number five on the ‘Craziest Places We’ve Fucked’ list.”


	2. cusp

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Joel and Tess have sexy times

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It devolved into a tinge of angst at the end that I was not ready to delve into in depth YET
> 
> BUT WHO KNOWS

She kisses him slowly, cups his scruffy cheek, squeezing gently when he flinches at the touch. She rocks her hips over the seam of his jeans as she reaches her wandering fingers down to unbutton his shirt. Joel grunts into her mouth, but Tess figures it comes out more of a moan when she runs her fingertips ticklishly through the generous spread of hair. She presses in for a deeper kiss, lets herself moan into his mouth as she feels him strain and tug at the cuffs. 

“Relax, cowboy,” she murmurs, kissing along his cheek, lingering most at the bruises blooming there before dragging her teeth along his clenched jawline. “You’ve got nowhere else to go in the meantime.”

“Tessa,” he groans, and Tess wriggles down firmer into where she can feel his cock pressing harder through his jeans. The cuffs rattle noisily against the chair, and Tess squeezes where she feels his muscles bunching in his arms. “Fuckin’  _ get on with it _ , already.”

She tsks at him, “bossy today.” 

She lifts off of him obligingly, takes some wicked amount of pleasure at the way his eyes flash dark and hungry when she shimmies out of her jeans, bites her lip slowly as she feels the way her underwear peels off her skin. There’s a slick stripe of wetness on her thigh, and if Tess is being honest with herself she’s probably been wet since the adrenaline kicked in with the discovery of Joel’s ransom note. 

Tess swallows her own sigh at the way her thighs come together just enough to get her clit twinging as she drops to her knees in front of him. 

The bulge in his pants has grown substantially in size since her little striptease and the fact that she is now at eye level with his cock, and Tess makes a show of licking her lips slowly as she slides her palms over his thighs. “Sad shame about the keys,” she says amiably, unzipping his jeans and tugging his belt loose. With enough maneuvering, the material parts wide enough for her to see the weight of his cock pressing through his boxers. 

His hips buck when Tess leans down to give it a hard suck through the material, and Joel thrashes impatiently against the cuffs hard enough to send a spike of excitement through her. “ _ Christ _ , woman, get on top of me ‘fore I put  _ you  _ in these damn things.”

She grins at him. “Is that a promise?”

She doesn’t bother waiting for a smartass reply; Tess takes his cock in her hand, squeezing her fingers around the thick length of him appraisingly as Joel’s breath hitches and she hears him swear under his breath. Patience at this point is no longer a virtue of hers, and Tess strokes her fingers along his shaft, lets her mouth take the hot and leaking head of him into her mouth for a brief moment. She hollows her cheeks almost cruelly; wants to grin at the way his hips stutter and his cock pulses on her tongue before pulling back with a wet pop.

“ _ Tessa - _ ”

“No more teasing, big guy,” she says, spreading her thighs over his lap and leaning down to press her wet cunt against the hard length of his cock. Her own breath hitches at the feeling of him pressing insistently at her entrance, the head already guaranteeing a sharp ache for the rest of the week as she lets herself grind against his cock, smears her wetness over his skin and moans when her clit brushes against him just right. It’s a cursory little swivel of her hips; she gets the length of him wet enough to take inside her, and Tess bites down hard on her cheek to keep from crying out when she spears herself on him, pussy spasming against the thick stretch of him filling her. 

Her nails dig into his shoulders, scraping lightly over the taut lines of his neck as she wriggles her hips down, lowering herself flush against him until her clit is brushing just so against the generous spread of hair on his pubic bone.  “Fuuuuck.” She tilts her head down on his shoulder, sucks in a stuttering breath as he begins to rock up into her slowly. Tess feels stars blooming under her eyelids at the feeling of it; the delicious way he knows how to roll his hips against her, to let the head of his cock rub up into those delicious spots inside her hard enough to make her thighs shake. He’s a tight fit for her on days when she’s spread out under him, and today she’s hesitating on the downstroke as she rides him, feels the light twinge of hurt lingering behind the sparks of pleasure riding along her spine.

She leans down to kiss him, open and messy and breathless as he gusts out her name in a breath, a low growl reverberating behind it. “Ride me like you mean it, now,” he rumbles, and Tess pulls herself back, leans as far back as she can and shivers in the way her sweat cools on her skin. She lets one hand fumble down to her clit, circling and rubbing just hard enough as she bucks her hips down all the way, a low, keening whimper pulled unwillingly from her throat at the way his length presses into places inside her she’s not sure she can take. 

He’s rocking his hips up into her faster, harder, breathing coming out in a moan as Tess collapses forward the first time, shuddering and whining as she writhes and grinds through her orgasm. Her fingers come away sticky and slick, and Tess pulls herself up straight enough to look him in the eye as she licks her own fingers clean and trembles again as an aftershock pulls through her from where his cock is still painfully hard and pulsing inside her. 

“Thought you were done teasin’, Tessa,” he breathes, sweat pooling along the dip of his neck, the hard lines of his shoulders tense and pulse jumping in his throat. His eyes are near-black with lust, voice husking low and growling as she rolls her hips in slow, heavy circles, his gaze hazy and pleading as he looks at her. 

Her thighs shake as she moves, slams herself down hard onto him, reveling in the filthy sound of their hips meeting; the wetness of her cunt sliding over his length as she pulls back and swallows him down again. The night is cooling rapidly, nightfall shading everything in black, but all Tess can hear is the harsh sound of Joel’s breath, the needy tilt of it as he chokes,  _ c’mon now _ , but she hears nothing more as the blood rushes to her head, as she feels her body lock down on him a second time. 

She melts onto him, goes completely limp for a long moment, their breaths mingling in the cold night. He’s heaving under her, muttering something into her ear just urgent enough for Tess to pull back, blink starry eyes at him as she pushes her hair back off her face. “Alright, alright,” she huffs indulgently. “You’ll get yours too, old man, don’t worry -”

“Already got mine,” Joel grinds out, and Tess pauses.  _ Oh _ . 

She shimmies backwards on his thighs enough for him to slide out of her, and sure enough, his cock slips out with a trail of white. “Fuck.” She can feel it dripping out of her, and Tess feels herself clench down reflexively before pushing off of him entirely. 

“I  _ told  _ you to pull out,” Joel says, but his voice is quiet, and low. “I said - Jesus Christ.”

Tess presses her lips together, reaching down to clean up as much as she can before pulling out the keys from her jeans pocket. She doesn’t think he’ll want to stay mad at her for the keys right now; not when they’ve maybe completely fucked themselves over. 

“It’ll be fine,” she says, uncuffing him. She steps back as he pulls his arms together, rubs at where his wrists are raw and aching, and she feels her stomach sinking slightly when she feels his come sticking to the inside of her thigh still. “Maybe it wouldn’t be a bad thing.”

He gives her a low look, and Tess tries to shrug as easily as she can.

“If it hasn’t happened yet, it probably won’t happen now. And if it does -” she gives another helpless kind of shrug, eyes soft and a little sad, her lips pulled into a disparaging smile. “I’ll handle it, Joel. Don’t worry.”

Joel sighs, but he says nothing to her for a long while - not while they’re creeping through the tunnels, not while they’re ducked behind pillars to wait out patrols. Not while they’re bedding down for the night, and Tess murmurs a  _ goodnight _ to him before turning her back to his side of the bed. She doesn’t have to guess to know what he’s thinking, why this is such a bad fucking idea, and that was her fault entirely, but Tess can’t help the way her fist clenches into her pillow at the thought of losing Joel because of something that might not even come to fruition to begin with. 

She’s not made to be a mother. She just isn’t. 

His side of the bed creaks and dips as he slips under the covers, and then slowly she feels his warmth pressing close. His arm comes around her waist as it always does, and she feels his breath on her ear as he sighs. 

“Wouldn’t leave you, y’know,” he mumbles, tentative. “If it - if we ever - y’know.” His arm squeezes gently over her waist, and Tess feels his large hand span across her stomach almost uncertainly. “Won’t leave either of you.”

She doesn’t know what to say back, but she turns over in his arms, presses her face into his neck and thinks that if she holds on hard enough, he’ll understand.


End file.
